Bill to Reduce Salaries with Retirement Withholding Increase Passes Senate.Call the Governor Today and Request that He Veto HB 854!
House Bill 854 along with House Bill 2, the General Appropriations Actpassed the Senate early this morning.Together these two measures are a plan to have all PERA and ERA active members pay an extra 1.5% of salary to PERA or ERA. The budget then calls for the employer (the state, universities, and school boards) to reduce its contribution to PERA/ERA by 1.5% of salary. House Bill 854 now moves to the Governor for his signature or veto.House Bill 2 was amended by the Senate and must return to the House for concurrence, probably this morning.The likelihood of derailing this train in this regular session of the legislature is over. Only four Senators stood up to the power of the Senate Finance Committee and refused to support this flawed budget process and mean-spirited attach on the pocketbooks of public employees.They were:
Thank them for their courage and willing to at least talk about changing the closed-door back-room deal-making of the Senate budget process.
The Governor is the only hope in stopping this payroll tax increase on public employees.
We know that the legislative update seems like the same song, different verse, but it is important that Senators know that we think that their budget balancing act on our backs is a very bad idea.
Sen. Carlos Cisneros, once a rival for Senate President-pro temp, was firmly in corner of the powerful Senate Finance Committee and carried the measure for them on the Senate Floor.Among the erroneous statements that he made was the contention that the federal stimulus rebate that all tax payers will receive more than makes up for the cut in pay for school employees! He assured the Senate most school employees will see a little increase in take-home pay, even after the 1.5% increase in retirement withholdings begins on July 1 because it's before taxes and the stimulus rebate will be coming to employees. What he didn’t point out is that the stimulus is a decrease in federal taxes and withholdings for April 2009 through December 2009 and the new retirement withholding is a 1.5% deduction (read massive payroll tax increase) in gross pay for two full years from July 1, 2009 until June 30, 2010! Legislators also don't seem the get the fact that the idea of the federal stimulus rebate was to put more consumer spending power into the economy (and workers' pockets) not to make donations to state government so that it can avoid putting Money into the economy We wonder if the legislature will ask all New Mexicans, including themselves, to "donate" their stimulus rebate to the state and to "keep on giving" for a year and a half after the stimulus runs out. You might want to make this request of your Legislator.
House Bill 854, sponsored by Representative Saavedra, is a part of the budget package and will cut school employees’ and state employees pay by 1.5% for two years. House Bill 854 increases the employee contribution to the pension fund 1.5% and reduces what the state is paying into the pension fund 1.5%. The measure would take hundreds of dollars out of the average school employee's pocket. House Bill 854, well intentioned thought it might have been when it left the House, has become the symbol of the raw power of the funding committees.
Call Governor Richardson (Phone: (505) 476-2200 Fax: (505) 476-2226) today and ask him to veto HB 854. Use this simple message:
"Veto HB 854. It undoes your hard work in increasing teacher and other school employee salaries over the last six years. This is bad economic development. It is a hypocritical use of federal stimulus incentives to avoid allowing school employees the full advantages of the intent of the stimulus package! Don't single out public employees with a 1.5% payroll tax increase to balance the budget. Please veto House Bill 854. Don't let legislators get away with the excuse that public employees can pay for this with their federal stimulus rebate. That's not fair. Other New Mexicans aren't being forced to "donate" their rebate to the state and, besides that, the rebate runs out at the end of the year and the increased payroll tax stays in place until June 30, 2011!"
Tax Bill for Sufficiency Funding Tabled in Committee
House Bill 346, which provides the funding for the formula set out in HB331, passed the House on Friday. This measure raises gross receipts taxes by .75% to fund public schools. HB346 passed on a near party line vote. HB 346 was tabled Senate Corporations and Transportation Committee on Wednesday, with little hope of ever moving in the Senate.
House Bill 331, sponsored by Representative Mimi Stewart, changes our state's outdated funding formula. This bill is stuck in the Senate Finance Committee with little hope of ever being heard.The bill would base school funding on student needs including poverty, ELL, enrollment growth and other factors. House Bill 331 passed the House Monday on a near party-line vote with most democrats voting for the bill and most republicans voting against. The measure next goes to the Senate Education Committee for a hearing; if it survives there it will move to the Senate Finance Committee where it died last year without a hearing. Follow this link to find your Senatorand office phone number. Contact all Senators with the message that this important measure at least deserves a hearing in the Senate Finance Committee this year. Any reason to oppose tax increases for public schools should have been removed when a recent poll found New Mexicans willing to pay higher taxes for public schools.
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